"Veni, Vidi, Amavi."

Planning the main components for your wedding while saving money

“So….This is it, your life is over.”

NOT!!!…..

Finally you’re in a great position in your life you have a rewarding career, finished school and are ready to spend it with someone oh so very special. The love of your life, your Prince Charming on a gorgeous white horse like in a fairy tale. He finally popped the magical question. “Will You Marry Me?” As for me it was in American Sign Language in Miami on a gondola boat in the mouth of the South Beach Atlantic Ocean. So romantic right?!

It was really magical.

“It’s Time To Plan Your Magical Day”

I began to become a little stress on planning my wedding. I was thinking about wedding venues, colors, and flowers, most importantly the wedding dress and center pieces for our guest to take home to remember the most important day of my life. Thankfully I’m a simple kind of vintage type of women and simplicity always goes a long way. I’m not looking for a multi-billion wedding with 500 guests. What for?? Are all those people close to you and your family your fiancé? I remember him telling me a horror story with the last one. At the end all that matters are the people who are the most closest and intimate with you and your future husband. Here are a few tips and saving money on your wedding.

Tip 1: Social Experiment “Double guess your guest list”

You don’t need an army to go to your wedding what for? Are these people really your friends? and Or had said negative feed back towards your engagement. Those are the ones that don’t get to experience your special moment and enjoy an amazing venue under the twilight skies. Sometimes it will be difficult for you to invite everyone but you need to narrow it down to the people who are really worth it in your life and made an impact. Sometimes you have to double guess, give the benefit of the doubt so I actually got some friends together and see how well they worked together as in socializing, manners. I was going to give a second chance on the ones who had said negatives towards my relationship and again these people failed. That day five people were crossed out my guest list. People are really fake and just want to suck on to you when things are going good for you see what they can pick at and comment on. Luckily my wedding is invite only as all weddings should be. The good side of this, we saved about $200 on a venue that is $85 per person. You can have friends but the friends that matter are the ones that you made a very strong connection with, someone who will do anything to help you. Party friends are just party friends.

Tip 2 “Time For The Magical Venues Without The Pricey Seasonal Cost.

Depending on the season when you want to have your wedding can really impact cost. For a fact Summer weddings are extremely expensive. Summer, Spring, and fall are the most popular times of year to get married which is why vendors are expensive and or if you choose to wed in a holiday month. Vendors tend to have lower prices during the winter time, or they could be willing to reduce costs because they’d rather have you book them then not have work at all. I thought it was a great idea to get married mid-winter. By mid-winter I mean after all the holidays are over even after New Years. This time around is usually down time for all the venues. Plan smart review all your options. See at least five venues before make a big decision. My fiancé and I looked at five places patiently with no rush. Check out these links they sure were very helpful to have a baseline on how to start looking for venues. But if you’re a billion air don’t worry about it hehe.

Here are few of the venues we saw, a happy processes.

“James Oviatt Penthous” ( Venue Rage $18,000)

We saw the James Oviatt Penthouse. This location highly recommend online from experienced couples who actually had their reception and wedding. High end beautiful view. Very antique still has Mr.Oviatt furniture and bed. When I was there I felt like it was a blast of the past. James Zera Oivatt was in born in Farmington, Utah in 1888 who came from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles to work as a window dresser at C.C. Desmond’s Department Store. He met with some business partners to lunch men’s clothing store. He then later built this building in the 1920’s gaining accesses to foreign designs while traveling to Europe during the summer bringing back high-end fashion to Los Angeles. He noticed the emergence of French Art Deco (my favorite) in the 1920s and Mr.Oviatt found the architectural style that embodied the interior design of his 1928 James Oviatt Building and its penthouse everything is still currently intact.His penthouse was built-in 1927-1928. This location did not help on giving a priced proposal they required the couple to go over the fee schedule and sum it up on your own which is not ideal for a couple nevertheless adding more stress. Your spending thousands and you still need to make your proposal. I don’t think so. They offered catering and were able to bring your own alcohol but still had to pay extra bucks for the two bartenders and ice which was odd to me. Food tasting is done after a deposit of half. http://oviatt.com/index2.php#/home/

“Culver’s Skyscraper”( Venue Rage $15-$20,000)

The Culver City Hotel is amazing, full of history details. It is a national historical landmark in downtown Culver City also known as “Culver Skyscraper” Opened in 1924, built by Harry Culver and founded Culver City. Many legendary stars, some maintaining private residences for months at a time. Culver himself kept his office there. So I don’t blame the very pricey venues. It’s the heart of Culver City. They offered two venues, on the first floor where the bar would be upstairs, and the second floor. A super wide opening where the bar would be located on the same floor. Everything is original and antique. You really don’t have to decorate since the hotel is pretty much dressed itself. I fell in love with all the Art Deco Designs to the windows, just everything. They allow to use their antique furniture. Flowers can be included but it would be their flower of the day and it might not match your theme if you have one like I do. Offers catering with a starting point of $6,000 but you would have to pay for food tasting which is not ideal if you’re trying to save money and plus paying this enormous amount and couldn’t offer as courtesy for your business?! I believe it was around $200.00 for food tasting. They also have a full restaurant and bar open to the public so if you are around check this place out even if it’s not for a wedding. I didn’t take a lot of photos because I wanted people to experience the same feeling I felt when I walked in. You also had to create your own proposal with their fee schedule. Again this is a lot of stress for the soon to be wedded couples. http://www.culverhotel.com/

“Marina Del Rey Yachts”(Venue Rage $10-25$)

If you read my Miami blog you would know that I got engaged on a gondola in a lagoon in South Beach Miami. This venue for us to see was really special. I have a strong connection with the sea ever since I was a little girl. The sea calms me, mellows me out on a stressful day or just hectic life itself. This venue would be perfect for either in the summer or fall, cruising around Marina Del Rey. They offer many different catering options not to mention free food tasting. They offer some tables decor, but most importantly they offer the table clothes and cloth napkins and in every color that reduces your expenses and makes everything less stressful. That was a bonus in my book. An amazing roof top deck to take you forever wedding photos with the beautiful sun set and ocean. My favorite part of see thing venue was the staff, they were super friendly even the events manager that we met with. He took his time to show us both yachts, answered all of over questions. He even sat down with us and showed us previous wedding events on his Ipad. Most importantly he sat down with us and wrote the proposal!!! We were very please.

Take a guess, which venue did we choose? Comment below or my Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/bellainskin/

Tip 3 “Invitations”

Invitations, the most essential piece of the wedding. My fiance and I wanted our invitations to match our wedding theme. Our theme is the Roaring 20’s, Great Gatsby the whole over the top fashion, Art Deco wedding. Super fun right??? We actually had gone to the FedEx office and saw their templates for Art Deco styled cards and the RSVP. We asked what kind of paper they used and they don’t use luxurious paper plus a total of 40 invitations were around $160 and this is without the RSVP cards. We asked the employer for some help she mentioned to us that Vista Print has the same templates as FedEx and use a better quality for paper. We purchased our invitations and RSVP both for $190 and that includes tax. We designed our wedding invitations we did not use a template at the end. So explore you options compare prices until you are satisfied. I do recommend Vista Print for any type of invitations you are trying to create. Here is what we designed.

“Summing Up My Wedding Tips”

Have a small wedding around 50-80 guest

Find venues that offer decor such as tables, tables cloths, napkins will save you money

Fall, Winter weddings are by far cheaper because vendors are more flexible in negotiating prices because they rather have business then no business.